Robo advisor drops minimum investment requirement to $0

The company, which received a $10 million investment from Power Financial last year, announced on March 3 that it has decided to reduce its account minimum from $500 to $0.

Exchange traded funds

Wealthsimple notes that, thanks to its recent acquisition of the ShareOwner brokerage firm, it is able to build portfolios using fractional shares of exchange traded funds. This means that clients can own a diversified portfolio even if they only have $100 to invest.

"Our goal when we started Wealthsimple was to democratize financial wisdom," comments Wealthsimple CEO Michael Katchen. "We wanted to prove that for anyone who is able to do a few simple things — start investing early, be consistent, avoid high fees — growing wealth isn't actually that hard."

No fees for accounts under $5,000

Wealthsimple currently charges no fees for accounts under $5,000. There is a $2 monthly fee for account balance of $10,000, which increases to $19 a month for $50,000, $40 a month for $100,000, $81 a month for $250,000 and $290 a month for $1 million.